Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen

24 reviews

lily_kruse's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Suicide, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Addiction, Drug use, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Fatphobia, Grief, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Vomit, Pregnancy, Rape, Racism, Abortion, and Blood

lubepizza's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

God I hate this family so much but boy howdy does this sucker know how to write.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Sexual content, Addiction, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Mental illness

Moderate: Suicide, Sexual violence, Body shaming, Abortion, Eating disorder, Infidelity, and Racism

Minor: War and Adult/minor relationship

drrock's review against another edition

emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Drug abuse, and Abortion

jessidbee's review against another edition

emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Mental illness, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abortion, Classism, Infidelity, Adult/minor relationship, Panic attacks/disorders, and Rape

joensign's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Mental illness, Drug abuse, and Infidelity

Moderate: Sexual assault, Fatphobia, and Toxic relationship

j_crews90's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug abuse, Colonisation, Alcohol, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Infidelity, and Eating disorder

popcornreading's review against another edition

reflective sad slow-paced

2.0

How utterly exhausting!! It felt overwritten and 100 pages too long. PLEASE see the content warnings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Homophobia, Addiction, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Panic attacks/disorders, Drug use, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Racism, Excrement, Mental illness, Fatphobia, Dysphoria, and Eating disorder

unboxedjack's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Pregnancy, Addiction, Alcohol, Colonisation, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Mental illness, and Suicide

exactlyem's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Infidelity, and Mental illness

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

 Crossroads was one of the books already on my TBR. It’s the story of a dysfunctional family, set in the 1970s but with plenty of flashbacks. Its size gives it an almost epic feel and it’s been touted as a future American classic. I loved the multiple perspectives, the vivid multi-layered, flawed and imperfect characters and I liked the dive into topics like mental health, infidelity, drug abuse, Vietnam, counter-culture and more. But, and this is a big but for me, this book had a very heavy Christian theme running throughout. Russ, the family’s father, was a pastor which wouldn’t have put me off. However, most of the characters, at one time or another, considered their circumstances and dilemmas at length through a Christian lens. For me it came across as too much, felt dogmatic and preachy, and was enough to push this into the “not for me” category. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Drug use, and Mental illness

Moderate: Abortion